FOGO trial at Acacia Ponds

It has partnered with the NSW Environment Protection Authority and local aged care facilities in a project that could reduce food waste by up to 90 per cent, council has said.

This involves trialling food waste dehydrators in two aged care facilities and a retirement village in Bega and Pambula.

At Acacia Ponds where one of the dehydrators has been placed, manager David Lee is enthusiastic about the trial.

Until the trial started all food waste ended up in landfill as FOGO caddies were not available to the residents at Acacia Ponds. FOGO bins are collected from the roadside and the amount of potential waste from the village made the system unworkable because of the number of bins needed to be left close to the highway.

But with the dehydrator food waste is being reduced by a massive 85 per cent.

The recently arrived caddies have been taken up by 25 per cent of the village's 98 homes but Mr Lee expects more people will come on board.

"As elderly residents we don't waste much food but there are still the off cuts and peelings from fruit and vegetables as well as fish and chicken bones."

Caddies are taken to special bins near the dehydrator; when full they are emptied into the dehydrator which runs over night to produce clean water from one outlet and very much reduced and dried food waste from another.

"It smells a bit like fruit cake," Mr Lee said with a laugh before putting it into the FOGO bin ready to be taken for collection.

"I reckon at the current rate it will take about a month to fill the two FOGO bins," he said.

Mr Lee will be giving his feedback to the machine manufacturers and believes there are some adjustments that would improve performance.

But he is interested in the clean water discharge saying it could provide a source of water for drip irrigation of communal gardens.

Bega Valley Shire Council waste strategy coordinator, Joley Vidau said her waste team found that limited bin storage areas and the weight of FOGO bins with large volumes of 'wet' food waste have prevented some sections of the community using the service.

"Trial results will help other aged care facilities, restaurants or clubs who produce large amounts of food waste make informed decisions on using pre-processing technology," Ms Vidau said.

"Placing our food waste in landfill has huge environmental and financial costs, and we are doing everything we can to reduce this."

"We hope this technology will make food waste easier to recycle for this sector of the community and make our landfill last longer."

Every year Australia throws out $8-$10 billion worth of food, or around four million tonnes, which ends up in landfill and generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas 21 times worse than carbon dioxide.